Dr.

Duraid M Abd Civil Engineering 2021

1.2.5 Cross-section of highway

Cross-section elements of a roadway include principal elements such as travel
lanes, shoulders, and medians and marginal elements such as gutters, sidewalks,
cross slopes, side slopes, back slopes, guard-rails. However, the availability of
these elements depends of whether the road is in urban or rural areas. The
element of cross-section will discussed later in detail. Figure 1.5 shows a typical
cross-section of highway.

Figure 1.5: Typical cross-section of road

1.2.6 Presence of heavy vehicles on steep grades

The presence of heavy vehicles affects the required geometric design of road.
This point is mostly related to next point.
1.2.7 Topography and environmental
For highway design, topography is generally classified into three groups:
1. Level terrain: this is relatively flat. Horizontal and vertical alignments are
generally long or can be achieved without much construction difficulty or major
expense. In addition, these horizontal and vertical alignments permitting heavy
vehicles to maintain approximately the same speed as passenger cars. Grades
are generally limited to 1 or 2 percent.
2. Rolling terrain: this type has natural slopes that often rise above and fall
below the highway grade with occasional steep slopes that restrict the normal
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vertical and horizontal alignments. This terrain causing heavy vehicles to reduce
their speeds substantially below those of passenger cars, but not to operate at
crawl speeds.
3. Mountainous (hilly) terrain: it has sudden changes in ground elevation in
both the longitudinal and transverse directions, thereby requiring frequent
hillside excavations to achieve acceptable horizontal and vertical alignments.
Furthermore, this type of terrain causing heavy vehicles to operate at crawl
speed. Heavy vehicles are defined as any vehicle having a weight (Pounds) to
horsepower ratio of 200 or greater. Crawl speed is defined as the maximum
sustained speed that heavy vehicles can maintain on an extended upgrade
1.2.8 Level of service
1.2.9 Safety
1.2.10 Funds
1.2.11 Restrictions

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1.3 Cross-section elements

As mentioned previously, the principal elements of a highway cross section
consist of the travel lanes, shoulders, and medians (for some multilane
highways). Marginal elements include and roadside barriers, kerbs, gutters,
guard rails, sidewalks, and side slopes. Figure 1.6 shows a typical cross section
for a two-lane highway, while Figure 1.7 shows that for a multilane highway.
The features of the cross-section of the pavement influence the life of the
pavement as well as the riding comfort and safety. Camber, kerbs, and geometry
of various cross-sectional elements are important aspects to be considered in
this regard. They are explained briefly in this lecture.

Figure 1.6: Typical cross-section for two-lane highway

Figure 1.7: Typical cross-section for multilane highway

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1.3.1 Pavement Surface Characteristics

For safe and comfortable driving four aspects of the pavement surface are
important; the friction between the wheels and the pavement surface,
smoothness of the road surface, the light refection characteristics of the top of
pavement surface, and drainage to water

1.3.1.1 Friction
Friction between the wheel and the pavement surface is a crucial factor in the
design of horizontal curves and thus the safe operating speed. Further, it also
affect the acceleration and deceleration ability of vehicles. Lack of adequate
friction can cause skidding or slipping of vehicles.

 Skidding happens when the path travelled along the road surface is more
than the circumferential movement of the wheels due to friction
 Slip occurs when the wheel revolves more than the corresponding
longitudinal movement along the road.

Various factors that affect friction are:

 Type of the pavement (like bituminous, concrete, or gravel),

 Condition of the pavement (dry or wet, hot or cold, etc),
 Condition of the tyre (new or old), and
 Speed and load of the vehicle.

The frictional force that develops between the wheel and the pavement is the
load acting multiplied by a factor called the coefficient of friction and denoted
as f. The choice of the value of f is a very complicated issue since it depends on
many variables. It is typically suggested that the coefficient of longitudinal
friction as 0.35-0.4 depending on the speed and coefficient of lateral friction as
0.15. The former is useful in sight distance calculation and the latter in
horizontal curve design.

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1.3.1.2 Unevenness

It is always desirable to have an even surface, but it is seldom possible to have

such a one. Even if a road is constructed with high quality pavers, it is possible
to develop unevenness due to pavement failures. Unevenness affect the vehicle
operating cost, speed, riding comfort, safety, fuel consumption and wear and
tear of tyres. Unevenness index is a measure of unevenness which is the
cumulative measure of vertical undulations of the pavement surface recorded
per unit horizontal length of the road. An unevenness index value less than 1500
mm/km is considered as good, a value less than 2500 mm/km is satisfactory up
to speed of 100 km/h and values greater than 3200 mm/km is considered as
uncomfortable even for 55 km/h.

1.3.1.3 Light of reflection

 White roads have good visibility at night, but caused glare during
daytime.
 Black roads has no glare during day, but has poor visibility at night
 Concrete roads has better visibility and less glare

It is necessary that the road surface should be visible at night and reflection of
light is the factor that answers it.

1.3.1.4 Drainage

The pavement surface should be absolutely impermeable to prevent seepage of

water into the pavement layers. Further, both the geometry and texture of
pavement surface should help in draining out the water from the surface in less
time. Please Remember, the main enemy for pavement is water and water and
water.

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1.3.2 Camber (Cross-slope)

Camber or cant is the cross slope provided to raise middle of the road surface in
the transverse direction to drain off water from road surface. The objectives of
providing camber are:

 Surface protection especially for gravel and bituminous roads

 Sub-grade protection by proper drainage
 Quick drying of pavement which in turn increases safety

Too steep slope is undesirable for it will erode the surface. Pavements on
straight sections of two-lane and multilane highways without medians are slope
from the middle downward to both sides of the highway, resulting in a
transverse or cross slope, with a cross section shape that can be curved, plane or
a combination of the two. A parabola is generally used for curved cross
sections, and the highest point of the pavement (called the crown) is slightly
rounded, with the cross slope increasing toward the pavement edge. Plane cross
slopes consist of uniform slopes at both sides of the crown. Travelled-way cross
slope should be adequate to provide proper drainage. Normally, cross slopes
range from 1.5% to 2% for paved surfaces and 2% to 6% for unpaved surfaces.
For unpaved surfaces, such as stabilized or loose gravel, and for stabilized earth
surfaces, a 3% cross slope is desirable. Figure 1.8 shows different types of
camber (cross-slope).

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Figure 1.8: Different types of camber (cross-slope)

1.3.3 Width of Travel Lanes

Width of the carriageway or the width of the pavement depends on the width of
the traffic lane and number of lanes. Width of a traffic lane (one lane width)
depends on the width of the vehicle and the clearance. Side clearance improves
operating speed and safety. In general, travel lane widths usually vary from
2.75m to 3.75m. Most arterials have 3.75 travel lanes since the extra cost for
constructing 3.75m lanes over 3m lanes is usually offset by the lower
maintenance cost for shoulders and pavement surface, resulting in a reduction of
wheel concentrations at the pavement edges. On two lane, two-way rural roads,
lane widths of 3m or 3.65m may be used, but two factors must be considered
when selecting a lane width less than 3.65m wide. When pavement surfaces are
less than 6.75m, the crash rates for large trucks tend to increase and, as the lane
width is reduced from 3.65m, the capacity of a highway significantly decreases.

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Lane widths of 3m are therefore used only on low-speed facilities. Lanes that
are 3m wide are used occasionally in urban areas if traffic volume is low and
there are extreme right-of-way constraints. It should be noted that the maximum
permissible width of a vehicle is 2.44m and the desirable side clearance for
single lane traffic is 0.68 m. This require minimum of lane width of 3.75 m for a
single lane road. However, the side clearance required is about 0.53 m, on either
side or 1.06 m in the centre. Therefore, a two-lane road require minimum of
3.5m for each lane.

In Iraq, a lane width of 3.75m is generally used for multilane highways while
standard lane width is 3.60m. Table 1.2 represents the lane width as
recommended by AASHTO Green book

1.3.4 Shoulders

The shoulder of a pavement cross section is always contiguous with the

travelled lane to provide an area along the highway for vehicles to stop when
necessary. Shoulder surfaces range in width from 0.6m on minor roads to 3.65m
on major arterials. Shoulders are also used to laterally support the pavement
structure. The shoulder width is known as either graded or usable, depending on
the section of the shoulder being considered. The graded shoulder width is the
whole width of the shoulder measured from the edge of the travelled pavement
to the intersection of the shoulder slope and the plane of the side slope. The
usable shoulder width is that part of the graded shoulder that can be used to
accommodate parked vehicles. The usable width is the same as the graded width
when the side slope is equal to or flatter than 4%. Minimum shoulder width of
1.80-2.40m may be considered for low- volume highways.

Asphalt and concrete – surfaced shoulders should be sloped from 2% to 6%,

aggregate and untreated granular shoulders from 4% to 6%. In other words,
slope of shoulder depends on the type of constructed materials.

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Table 1.2 lane width as recommended by AASHTO

1.3.5 Medians

A median is the section of a divided highway that separates the lanes in

opposing directions. The width of a median is the distance between the edges of
the inside lanes, including the median shoulders. The functions of a median
include:

 Providing a recovery area for out-of-control vehicles

 Separating opposing traffic
 Providing stopping areas during emergencies
 Providing storage areas for left-turning and U-turning vehicles
 Providing refuge for pedestrians
 Reducing the effect of headlight glare

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Medians can either be raised, flush, or depressed as follows:

 Raised medians are frequently used in urban arterial streets because they
facilitate the control of left-turn traffic at intersections by using part of the
median width for left-turn-only lanes. Some disadvantages associated
with raised medians include possible loss of control of the vehicle by the
driver if the median is accidentally struck, and they cast a shadow from
oncoming headlights, which results in drivers finding it difficult to see the
curb.
 Flush medians are commonly used on urban arterials. They can also be
used on freeways, but with a median barrier. To facilitate drainage of
surface water, the flush median should be crowned. The practice in urban
areas of converting flush medians into two-way left-turn lanes is
common, since the capacity of the urban highway is increased while
maintaining some features of a median.
 Depressed medians are generally used on freeways and are more effective
in draining surface water. A side slope of 6% is suggested for depressed
medians, although a slope of 4% may be adequate.

In general, median widths are in the range from 1.2m to 24m or even more at
some cases. Median widths should be as wide as possible but should be
balanced with other elements of the cross section and the cost involved. In
general, the wider the median, the more effective it is in providing safe
operating conditions and a recovery area for out-of-control vehicles. Figure
1.9 shows median cross-slope illustrations at different roads.

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Figure 1.10: Median cross-slope illustrations at different roads

1.3.5 Kerbs

Kerbs are raised structures made of either Portland cement concrete or

bituminous concrete (rolled asphalt kerb) that are used mainly on urban
highways to delineate pavement edges and pedestrian walkways. kerb are also
used to control drainage, improve aesthetics, and reduce right of way. They can
be generally classified as either vertical or sloping Kerbs indicate the boundary
between the carriage way and the shoulder or islands or footpaths.

Different types of kerbs are shown in Figure 1.11

 Low or mountable kerbs: This type of kerbs are provided such that they
encourage the traffic to remain in the through traffic lanes and allow the
driver to enter the shoulder area with little deficiency. The height of this

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kerb is about 10cm above the pavement edge with a slope, which allows
vehicles to climb easily. This is usually provided at medians and
channelization schemes and also helps in longitudinal drainage.
 Semi-barrier kerbs: when the pedestrian traffic is high, these kerbs are
provided. Their height is 15cm above the pavement edge. This type of
kerb prevents encroachment of parking vehicles, but at acute emergency
it is possible to drive over this kerb with some difficulty.
 Barrier kerbs: they are designed to discourage vehicles from leaving the
pavement. They are provided when there is considerable amount of
pedestrian traffic. They are generally placed at a height of 20cm above
the pavement edge with a steep batter
 Submerged kerbs: They are used in rural roads. The kerbs are provided at
pavement edges between the pavement edge and shoulders. They provide
lateral confinement and stability to the pavement.

Figure 1.11: Different types of kerbs

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